A conventional and common approach to manufacturing a configurable product is to prioritize components of the product and one by one manually lookup a placement and/or configuration of the component itself in paper-based tables. In addition to the tables, a set of static work instructions may be provided to give basic guidelines on how to assemble the product.
An advanced version of the conventional approach is to have electronic tables and electronic instructions. This approach still requires the assembler to determine which table to use, which placement and/or configuration to use, and how to apply the general guideline or instruction to the specific case. Some of the deficiencies of these conventional methods are the number of opportunities for human error, the extra time involved to determine proper assembly of a product, and the limitation of the scope of the product line. The scope of the product line would be limited because (based on the tables) there would be exactly one overall assembly for any collection of components. Therefore, there is a significant need for a manufacturing method which overcomes these deficiencies.